Aimetis software stood out from the rest in terms of economics, ease-of-use and camera to server ratios needed to support over 1,000 cameras. The simple licensing model along with dynamic licensing and integrated analytics, made it easy for us to accurately budget the resources needed to support our future growth.

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Cpl. Robert Stachowiak
University of Akron Police Department

Customer Profile

The University of Akron, the fourth largest university in Ohio, is located in the heart of downtown Akron. With over 29,000 students and more than 80 buildings on a total of 218 acres of property, the campus contains a variety of structures, including classrooms, residence halls, student union, recreation center and various athletic fields. The most recent additions to the university include a $61 million football stadium and an even newer soccer stadium.

Technology & Integration

Aimetis software licenses: Standard, Professional and Enterprise

150 IP cameras

50 terabyte SAN

Two servers

Results

Increased sense of security for students, faculty and visitors

Prevention of vandalism and theft

Faster and more effective coordinated emergency response

Reduced spending on additional security measures

Summary

Aimetis Symphony™ integrated intelligent video management software was deployed at the University of Akron to improve the overall safety and security of staff, students and visitors from the centralized monitoring station managed by The University of Akron Police Department.

Business Challenge

The safety of all of the University of Akron is of paramount concern and the first priority in deciding on a video management software solution. The presence of visible cameras provides an increased sense of security throughout the community and influences potential perpetrators to change their behaviour before any criminal activity takes place.

The University of Akron was looking for a cost effective solution that could be used to monitor the vast campus and provide the tools to identify suspicious events in real-time but also to quickly pinpoint events or people from archived video data. Based on the size of the campus, the university required a robust tool that would eliminate the need to review hours and days of video footage, and allow a search based on specifically defined parameters from a centralized monitoring station.

A system was required that would allow for the flexible addition of more cameras to the existing infrastructure without the complication of supplementary server licenses and renewal contracts. With plans to convert another 400 cameras from analog to IP and increase the overall number of cameras by an additional 1000 within the next year, the university required a solution that would be easily scalable and grow with the student population.

Solution

Aimetis Symphony™ Intelligent Video Management software has effectively deterred theft, reduced vandalism and property damage at the university since it’s installation in 2010.

The University of Akron Police Department are able to monitor and control the entire university campus from their central monitoring station, using motion tracking and in the future, a range of video analytics, to detect and alert suspicious activity to security personnel. This has resulted in faster and more coordinated responses to potentially dangerous emergency situations.

The Intelligent Search feature of Aimetis Symphony allows security personnel at the university to spend time responding to issues and activities, instead of spending hours reviewing recorded video to locate criminal activity. This saves time and money, with the mundane task of recording being left to the surveillance system instead of the security professionals and minimizing the requirements for additional human resources. Most recently the feature was used to locate student bikes that had gone missing.